RESULTS
ST. PAUL, Minn. - After several scheduling changes due to the weather, the women's track and field team finally opened up their outdoor season at the Hamline Twilight on Wednesday evening. "It was kind of surreal to be outside," said Head Coach Andrew Rock. "I think we started our season very well tonight given the circumstances. It was cold, we haven't been outside for practice yet, and it's been nearly seven weeks since most of our student-athletes had a competition. But we still want be competitive in every situation."
In the unscored meet, the Royals had twelve top-8 finishes. Fresh off of her two All-American awards from the indoor season, Delia Labatt continued in impress in the 400m. She won the race in 56.88 seconds, which ranks 7th in Division III. Teammate and fellow All-American Hannah Sankey ran 58.53 for 4th place. In the 200m, Kelby Olson-Rodel ran 27.98 into a headwind and placed 8th. Allie Terpstra ran 16.04 in the 100m hurdles to win her heat and place 7th overall. Corin McKinstrey was just behind her, finishing 8th with 16.15. McKinstrey also placed 4th in the 400m hurdles (1:09.01), this time edging out teammate Syri Williams who placed 5th (1:09.43).
The distance crew was led by Erin Alpers (also a part of the All-American 4x4 relay team), took 2nd place in the 800m with a time of 2:16.85 (20th in Division III). Annika Halverson ran with the lead pack of Division I runners for the majority of the 5k, but faded to 8th place. Halverson still put up a very solid time of 17:53.24 (46th in Division  III).
Bethel finished strong in several field events including the pole vault, which was held indoors. Sadie Koelz placed 4th (3.03m/9'11.75") and Sarah Dalhberg placed 8th (2.88m/9'5.25"). The triple jumpers also fared well, with freshmen Sally Paul (10.40m/34'1.5") and Hannah Nelson (9.61m/31'6.5") placed 4th and 8th respectively. Geneva Bayse placed 5th in the shot put with a throw of 10 meters even (32'9.75").
"We had a good amount of energy and enthusiasm to be outside today," says Rock. "We're looking forward to being competitive the rest of the season." The men's track and field team will be in action on Thursday, April 12th at St. Thomas University. Both teams will travel together for the Augustana Meet of Champions next weekend.
